There is a lot to like about the Galaxy Note 8, but one part of it has already won an award of sorts. DisplayMate, producers of what's recognized as the best suite of tools for display diagnostics and calibration, has given the Note 8's display their first ever A+ rating, calling it "the most innovative and high-performance smartphone display that we have ever lab tested."
That is some very high praise from a company that knows everything there is to know about displays. We're used to hearing that Samsung makes some of the best, if not the best displays available, and it's not surprising that the Note 8 carries the company's latest advancements when it comes to making them. What we weren't prepared for was hearing so many things the Note 8's screen does better than anything we have seen before. The Note 8 matches or sets performance records for a list of features.
- Largest Native Color Gamut with a score of 112% for the DCI-P3 color space and 141% for the sRGB / Rec.709 color space
- Highest Peak Display Brightness at 1,240 nits
- Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light with a score of 270
- Highest Screen Resolution: 3K (2960x1440, 521 ppi)
- Highest Contrast Ratio: Infinite
- Lowest Screen Reflectance of just 4.6%
- Smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle at 29%
Overall, the Note 8 scored "very good" or "excellent" in every testing category except for the Brightness Variation with Average Picture Level section, which OLED displays are unable to accurately process using the current technology.
DisplayMate didn't only have praise for the hardware that is being used for the Note 8 display. Several software features were recognized as being outstanding, such as the Mobile HDR processing, user selectable color management and adjustable white point and color balance.
DisplayMate goes in-depth with every aspect of the Note 8's display, and it's worth reading for anyone interested in display technology in general or fans of the Note 8 who want every intricate detail. Describing the results of DisplayMate's testing for the layman is much easier:
You have never seen a phone with a display this good. Ever.
